Model & Render by Shane Fletcher

As Twilight Render announced, Version 1.3 of the rendering plugin for Google SketchUp has just been released. Beside some fixes like texture naming (texture names can now contain non-ASCII characters for instance) and camera target matching SketchUp camera during animation render export, some of the exciting new features are:

• Change where any light is aiming by selecting the light, right-clicking, and choosing Twilight->’Set Light Target’ from the context menu. Then click on a point to have the light aim at that point.
• A new ‘eyedropper’ selector for selecting lights in the Light Editor
• Several ‘auto-saving’ options for saving your render periodically, automatically when finished, or manually
• Use SketchyReplay recordings in your animations, as well as ‘real-time’ SketchyPhysics simulations.
• Save a snapshot of your SketchUp view to the exact dimensions and position as your render*
• A bell sound when your render is complete

Please, visit the Twiligh Render Forum announcement for screenshots and further details.

Render by solo (Pete Stoppel)

The Open Beta of Thea Render has finally been launched as has been posted on the Thea Render website. As you may know, the development of Thea Render started a while ago (see our “related artickles” below) and now has come the moment when it si finally released for beta testing to the public. The developer is the same Giannis (Ioannis Pantazopoulos) who developed the popular and free Kerkythea Renderer and the exporter for Thea is also written by the same TomaszMarek who developed su2kt for Kerkythea.

Read more about the features of Thea Render here. Download the Beta Release and the plugins here (I am definitely going to download it right now).

Related articles:

• Thea Render
• Thea Render – Call for First Public Beta
• Thea Render Pricing and Release Roadmap

As was announced today, the new, second beta of Podium 2 had just been released. This build represents a stable code base where all features are working, although some may need some modification before final release. There will be additional features as well. V2 uses a new, higher-quality render engine. As a result, scenes set up in V1.x will not look the same in V2.

Feature List

• Global material properties
• Physical sky
• Bump mapping
• True’ reflection – not fake specularity
• Refraction with presets
• Blurred reflection
• Blurred refraction for true translucency
• Light emitting materials
• Omni (point light sources)

You can download the new build on the Podium site.

Render Plus is launching a new IRender nXt rendering contest. It starts on Feb 15, 2010, and will run until March 15, 2010. Results will be announced on March 30, 2010. You do not need to own IRender nXt, Render Plus will provide a free copy during the contest.

This years contest is designed to highlight the features of their new Version 3.0 of IRender nXt. In particular:

1. The new Materials libraries of over 6,000 materials for you to use.
2. The low res Arroway texture library of 100 textures
3. The new library of 49 RpTreeMaker Plants
4. RpTreeMaker to create your own plants
5. ArchVision RPC Objects
6. HDRi Skies

Each entry will make use of at least 4 of the new features. There are great prizes such as

1. NetBook – Samsung NC10 or Toshiba NB205 – Value $334.00, or Render Plus Combo Pack, including IRender nXt – the premier rendering product for SketchUp – value $549.00;
2. Spyder 3 Pro mouse – value $139.00, or IRender nXt – the premier rendering product for SketchUp – Value $449.00;
3. Vis Tablet – value $100.00, or nXtRender – quality SketchUp rendering at an affordable price – Value $99.00.

For more details, please, visit the Contest page at Render Plus.

A new version (1.8) of LighUp, the realtime rendering plugin for SketchUp, was released as developer Adam Billyard has just announced in the SketchUcation Community Forums. The  new version that introduces the first in a series of GPU-based features like adjusting Exposure, Contrast, Saturation and Temperature all inside SketchUp during realtime navigation.

Other features include:

• Realtime adjustment of image Bloom
• More controls over processing
• Improved performance
• Better motion blur handling
• A variety of bug fixes

See details and download the plugin (or its fully functional, 30-day trial version) on the LightUp website.

Piranesi 2010 not only converts your 2D and 3D designs into breathtaking presentation images for clients and prospects alike, but expresses your team’s creative and professional abilities with maximum dramatic impact.

Anyone who has presented an initial design concept understands the power of the artist’s impression. At the early stages of a project, where specifications are limited and it’s simply not possible (or even desirable) to present detailed treatments, Piranesi can and does work wonders.

Piranesi’s unique ability to generate stylish and atmospheric illustrations, with a truly hand-painted feel, sets it apart from other visualisation tools. In your hands, Piranesi will produce subtle and emotive impressions which allow the creative idea to shine, drawing the focus to the key elements of the design proposal.

Piranesi 2010 doesn’t need a heavily-detailed source model that was time-consuming to produce – you can rapidly create stunning images even from simple models. At the later stages of your project, after your initial concepts have been approved, Piranesi is used to produce finished visuals (either photorealistic or non-photorealistic) for distribution to all parties involved, or for competition submission.

Piranesi 2010 is unlike any other painting application. Designed to work in conjunction with all popular AEC 2D and 3D modellers, it has the ability to ‘remember’ the dimensional information from your model. This enables you to paint freely whilst locking to a single material (removing the need to generate masks), and also paint with textures in perfect perspective. By remembering the depth dimension from the original 3D model, Piranesi allows you to place cutouts with automated scaling in relation to both your original model image, and other placed entourage elements. Piranesi even allows you to place cutouts behind your model (e.g. trees behind a building) and applies automatic masking to the placed cutout.

Quick, simple and stress free.

From here, we simply and eloquently let the Piranesi Gallery at www.piranesi.co.uk do the talking!

Piranesi 2010 Pro

As the name portrays this is the all encompassing version of Piranesi 2010. Although fully loaded with the tools needed to tackle the largest and most complex of projects, and based on new layering technology, it still remains highly competitively priced by the clever use of a range of multi-user, term and enterprise price-point options that mirror the needs of a vast array of different business models. Included in these price are two massive raster “Entourage” galleries, an optional twelve months upgrade and email support cover, a private Pro Forum, 3D glasses for viewing the amazing new 3D Anaglyph Images, and a choice of 64 or 32 bit Windows or 32bit Mac implementations.

Piranesi 2010 Lite

Lite only in name and by price, this product contains all the functionality that was found in the full blown 2009 version of Piranesi (Piranesi 5.1). And to further bring Piranesi 2010 Lite to its staggeringly low entry price-point the two raster entourages have now become optional selections for the product. Available as a 32bit Windows or Mac implementation this product will now make the “Piranesi Experience” affordable to the smallest of businesses.

As Whaat (Dale Martens), author of the plugin announced, Skindigo 2.2 for the rendering application Indigo 2.2 has just been released. Usability has been greatly improved along with integration with the Indigo material database. Main features are

• Integrated Indigo Material Database Search
• Sun Position Override Tool
• New Color Picker Interface for Emitter Color
• Custom Light Layer Names
• Save Custom Defaults
• New Interface for Setting Absorption
• Select Camera Response Function
• Network Rendering Settings
• New Material Presets
• New Subdivision Settings
• Support for Surface Color (Absorption Layer Transmittance)
• Support for Preview Thumbnails on Mac
• Support for Back Face Export
• Scene Tab Object Animation Support
• Automatically Check for SkIndigo Updates
• Recalibrated Background Color Gain
• Many  bug-fixes and usability improvements

See the new features detailed on the “What’s New in SkIndigo 2.2” page and download the plugin here.

As Glare Technologies has just announced, the latest version of their photo-realistic rendering package: Indigo Renderer 2.2. has just been released.  Indigo 2.2 is at least 2 times faster than Indigo 2.0 on all scenes, and up to 10 times faster on scenes using environment maps.

Subsurface scattering (used for skin, candles and rubbery materials) has been improved to render faster and with less noise. Tone-mapping and Aperture Diffraction are now fully multi-threaded, allowing for more rapid tweaking of the scene’s mood.

The all-new Indigo Material Editor, introduced with Indigo 2.2 (see image above), allows fully featured creation and editing of materials in a graphical environment. All material functions are available in the Indigo Material Editor, with Indigo Shader Language able to control any attribute. The Indigo material editor also allows direct uploads to and downloads from the online Indigo Material Database.

Many small improvements have been made to the Indigo interface to make it more intuitive and responsive.

The specular material has had absorption layer transmittance added, to allow for stained glass-like effects and blemishes on materials like skin.

The Indigo exporters for Blender, Cinema4D, SketchUp, and 3ds Max, have all seen many improvements, making the Indigo workflow fast and easier.

See a more comprehensive presentation of the new Indigo features on their website.

As it was announced on the SU Podium website, the Beta version of the new SU Podium plugin (an easy-to-use renderer working inside SketchUp) has just been released. We have been reading much of this coming version for long and this first, public Beta seems to be very exciting.

“This build represents a stable code base where as far as we are aware, all features are working, although some may need some modification before final release. There will be additional features as well. V2 uses a new, higher-quality render engine. As a result, scenes set up in V1.x will not look the same in V2.” says the announcement.

Feature List

1. Global material properties
2. Physical sky
3. Bump mapping
4. ‘True’ reflection – not fake specularity
5. Refraction with presets
6. Blurred reflection
7. Blurred refraction for true translucency
8. Light emitting materials
9. Omni (point light sources)

Read more on the Podium website linked above.

Render Plus Systems have released a new version of IRender nXt – their integrated rendering engine for SketchUp. The latest version adds these features:

• Panoramic Views – creates a full 360 degree panorama with a single rendering.
• Time required to export models cut by 50%
• Automatic positioning of Camera Lights
• Foreground overlays – images, edge lines, watermarks, pattern masking
• Automatic Clay Rendering Mode
• Automatic support for 2 PT Perspective

For a more complete list of features with examples, please, visit the website.